


The Feeling's Mutual

by Crystalklk



Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: F/F, F/M, Kissing, M/M, Multi, Sparring, vegeta gets embarrassed and welcomes death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-12
Updated: 2019-03-12
Packaged: 2019-11-16 08:36:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18091031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crystalklk/pseuds/Crystalklk
Summary: Vegeta hates feelings and wants them to not exist: a memoir





	1. Vegeta gets distracted and nearly dies

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! You might recognize my alias and I'm gonna be honest, this isn't my... first fanfic but it's the first one I'm uploading. I hope it's good!

Vegeta is being pushed back, he realizes with sudden clarity.

Kakarot seems to be actively trying to corner him, Vegeta’s brain offers up that he might be trying to hinder his mobility, but Kakarot isn’t very tactically minded, so that doesn’t seem correct.

Vegeta, distracted by this line of thinking, doesn’t realize how close he is to the cliffside until he almost brains himself with the rockface behind him.

 

Dark spots cloud his vision for a moment before he shakes it off, cursing his inattentiveness.

When his vision clears he realizes that Kakarot is much closer than he was expecting, and also counter to his expectations, didn’t immediately take his (accidental) self-injury as an opening to finish him off for this round. 

Vegeta almost fails to stifle his smirk, he’d regret not taking the opportunity in a min-

Vegeta flattens himself against the surface instinctively once his eyes pick up the movement in the corner of his eye, Kakarot had raised his hand and- 

_What is he doing._

 

Kakarot crowds closer to him and Vegeta is about to tell him to go fuck himself when his voice cuts off in his throat (he later refuses to acknowledge that the noise he made was a squeak).

Kakarot’s hand is cupping his cheek, and Vegeta can not process that fact for a few seconds.

His thumb strokes softly against Vegeta’s face and _no No NO. Enough._

 

He smacks Kakarot’s hand away and punches him in the stomach, not to injure but to push him far enough away so Vegeta would have space to actually _think_ because what the hell, Kakarot.

“ _What the hell, Kakarot?!_ ” Vegeta said, voice more confused sounding than he had intended.

 

Kakarot opened his mouth and then looked confused himself, “I- why did ya have to hit me?”

 

Vegeta felt like throwing a fit and raised his volume, “I ASKED FIRST. WHAT THE _FUCK_ , KAKAROT?”

 

Kakarot winced and raised his hand in response, making a placating motion, “Listen. I just. You looked… sad.”

 

Vegeta felt gutted for a second, Kakarot should not be aware of his feelings, he wasn’t aware of his feelings half of the time so Kakarot is not allowed to know more about him than he does about himself. That’s not fair.

 

Vegeta represses his own thoughts before responding to Kakarot, “I don’t care _how_ I looked, what makes you think you could touch me?!”

 

Kakarot looks. Vegeta isn’t sure how exactly to describe it, but he looks… crushed.

 

“I’m… I’m sorry, I thought, since we were fighting, I could punch your face, and touch- but… I’m sorry.”

Oh, god is he about to cry? No. Fuck. Vegeta wasn’t trying to hurt him and he didn’t… do anything wrong he just. Vegeta doesn’t even really know how affection works but. Wait, does Goku even know how affection works? Does he know that what he did was… unusual for humans, or even saiyans, to do among ~~friends~~ rivals?

Vegeta opens his mouth, trying to fix his mistake, but Goku’s hands have reached his forehead, so he switches tactics, shouts “Wait!” and Goku’s gone.


	2. Vegeta talks about his feelings and wishes for death

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Vegeta: *accidentally does something embarassing*  
> Vegeta, internally: DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH DEATH

Vegeta curses to himself,  _Isn’t that just like Kakarot, always running away._

Vegeta’s internal critic, who sounds like Bulma, oddly enough, tells him that maybe Goku wouldn’t have run away if he hadn’t pushed him away.

 

 _He touched me without my permission!_  Vegeta argued.

Inner-Bulma acknowledges this but tells him that they were fighting and Goku is an idiot so maybe he just did something stupid. Again.

He’s not actually mad that he was touched without permission, because they were fighting and technically Goku interpreting that as ‘anything goes’ wasn’t necessarily incorrect.

Vegeta’s true source of anger is that he didn’t like the emotions that were caused by Goku’s contact with his face, but acknowledging his emotions was beyond him.

 

Vegeta feels like shit for the next hour as he beats himself over the head mentally.

Bulma is almost always smarter than him.

After the hour of flying back slowly to maximize his allotted time of daily self-hatred, he unconsciously walks towards the  ~~panic~~  gravity room.

He tries to reconcile what just happened. What was he actually mad about?

 _Was it Kakarot?_  Inner-Bulma mentally cuffs the back of his head, so probably not.

 

Goddammit, he needed the real Bulma for this stupid emotion bullshit. 

As if called by the devil above, he walks into Bulma turning around a corner.

 

“What the honest hell!!?” She yells, fumbling with the notes she had in her hand, “Vegeta, watch where you’re going!”

Vegeta doesn’t immediately respond to her criticism, so she takes another look at him, and frowns.

“Alright, what did you do?”

Vegeta seethes, “What makes you think I did something?”

“Because if it was Goku’s fault, you’d be pissed, and not looking like you’re about to beat yourself up by training in a million times gravity for the next 24 hours.”

Vegeta hates her, why is she always so smart?

 

“Kakarot touched my face,” he said, and immediately wanted to die.

Bulma looks confused for a second, “… isn’t that the point of sparring?” 

Vegeta almost stomps his foot in frustration, “No, like,” he steps closer and mimics what Kakarot did to him, “like  _this_.”

Bulma’s eyes widen, “Oh… oh okay. Uh… let me put my notes away first and we can talk about it,” she hooks her arm with his and walks towards her lab, “also I need to calibrate the Gravity Room’s machinery so it’s out of commission for now.”

 

Vegeta’s building irritation makes him want to explode.

* * *

 

“So… he touched you and you didn’t like that?”

“Yes.” Bulma looks at him and he groans before shoving his face in his hands, “ _No_. I didn’t…  _hate_  it.”

“So, you didn’t like him not asking before doing it?”

 

“Well… I mean I… I would’ve preferred permission-”

Bulma cuts him off, “So, you  _did_  like it?” She types something on her phone.

“What are you doing?” He narrows his eyes at the phone in her hand. 

“Don’t change the subject,” she glares back at him, “I’m trying to walk you through the mess you call emotions and I’m charging by the second.”

“Wh- I’m not paying you!” Vegeta says.

 

Bulma smiles wryly, “Worth a shot,” she places her phone face down on the table next to her and leans forward, “So, what happened afterward?”

Vegeta winces, “I… told him that he shouldn’t have done that and. He left.”

Bulma frowns, “Jesus, are you sure? Goku has a habit of leaving but it’s… it’s not  _that_  bad.”

Vegeta, “I… might’ve made him think he wronged me… more than he actually did.”

Bulma gets up, “Goddammit, Vegeta, you know he’s not that smart, he probably takes most of what you say as gospel because he’s an idiot and thinks you know better, when you  _clearly_  don’t!” she cuffs him across the back of the head and he yelps.

 

“Wh- Are you okay?” Bulma suddenly sounds extremely worried for his physical health.

“I banged my head against a rock wall earlier.”

Bulma sighs, “I’m sorry for making it worse,” she smiles softly.

“Oh, now you apologize.”

“Hey!” she says, faking anger.

“Should I go apologize?”

“Well, yeah, but… where is he right now?”

 

Vegeta feels out Goku’s ki, “He’s at home, and,” he frowns, “He might be asleep, his ki is thrumming steadily.”

“You can tell all that from his ki?” Bulma teases.

Oh no. She figured it out.

“Shut up.”

“Hey,” she tilts his head up, slowly, “if you… I don’t know, wanna do the do with Goku, I’m fine with that.”

Vegeta wants death.

“I- how- How Dare You. Insinu- BULMA!” he sputters.

She laughs, like the sadistic bitch she is, “I’m serious. He clearly likes you and you clearly care for him. I’m surprised it took this long.”

 

Before Vegeta can declare he is stealing her spaceship and leaving Earth forever, Bulma pre-emptively shuts his line of thinking down, “Just promise me something.”

Vegeta pauses, “Like what?”

Bulma grins deviously and Vegeta regrets Krillin’s decision to let him live. This was Kakarot’s plan all along, to cause him enough embarrassment to die. He is much more clever than anyone gives him credit for.

“Promise you’ll still love me?” and Vegeta is. Stunned. He nods, because of course, but he’s confused because her facial express- “And…”  _there it is_ , Vegeta is now awaiting the sweet embrace of death, “Give me a yelp review of his ass,”

“BULMA!” 

“Or his dick, one or the other.”

 

Vegeta hates his life.


	3. Vegeta wakes up and wishes he didn't

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Drinking Game: everytime bulma calls vegeta babe

_Vegeta is being pushed back, he realizes with sudden clarity._

_Kakarot seems to be actively trying to corner him, Vegeta’s brain offers up that he might be trying to hinder his mobility, but Kakarot isn’t very tactically minded, so that doesn’t seem correct._

_Vegeta, distracted by this line of thinking, doesn’t realize how close he is to the cliffside until he almost brains himself with the rockface behind him._

_Dark spots cloud his vision for a moment before he shakes it off, cursing his inattentiveness._

_When his vision clears he realizes that Kakarot is much closer than he was expecting, and also counter to his expectations, didn’t immediately take his (accidental) self-injury as an opening to finish him off for this round._

_Vegeta almost fails to stifle his smirk, he’d regret not taking the opportunity in a min-_

_Vegeta flattens himself against the surface instinctively once his eyes pick up the movement in the corner of his eye, Kakarot had raised his hand and-_

_What is he doing._

_Kakarot crowds closer to him and Vegeta is about to tell him to go fuck himself when his voice cuts off in his throat (he later refuses to acknowledge that the noise he made was a squeak)._

_Kakarot’s hand is cupping his cheek, and Vegeta can not process that fact for a few seconds._

_His thumb strokes softly against Vegeta’s face and -_ Vegeta lets him.

Kakarot’s other hand runs through Vegeta’s spiked hair and he leans down, Vegeta decides, _fuck it_ , and completes the kiss.

Vegeta’s arms wrap around Kakarot’s shoulders and relaxes into the embrace, moaning softly.

 

Kakarot breaks the kiss and mumbles, “You’re so beautiful.” 

Vegeta’s breath catches, and he flushes pink, “Look whose talking,” _did he actually just say that?_

Kakarot laughs, and his smile fills Vegeta with warmth, “Sorry about kissing you out of nowhere… you just looked…

 

 

 _Sad._ ”

 

* * *

 

Vegeta wakes up suddenly, shivering in cold sweat, _goddammit, fuck, why did I make him leave_. He counters his own thoughts with the fact that he couldn’t be sure that Kakarot would’ve kissed him.

Wait did he _want_ Kakarot to kiss him?

He almost slaps himself, he just dreamt about that happening, so he _probably_ wants to kiss him.

 

“Why did he call me sad?” he mumbles.

“Why did who call you what?” Bulma says, shifting in bed to face him.

“Fuck. I’m sorry I woke you up.” He says sincerely.

 

“It’s fine, but I’m letting you know that’s only because my alarm was about to go off anyway,” Vegeta looks and realizes that despite waking up in cold sweat, he had managed to get a full night’s rest.

_Huh._

“But, who called you sad, babe?” Bulma asks, sleepily, and _god she’s adorable_.

 

_Wait did she call him babe?_

_Why do his romantic partners call him things?_

Vegeta ignores the fact that he basically called Kakarot his romantic partner because it’s too early to have more than one crisis in two minutes.

“Kakarot.”

“Oh…” she says, sounding as if she had figured out cold fusion, “that makes sense.”

“What?!”

She slaps her hand softly over his mouth, making a motion for him to shush, “No, it makes sense why you got so mad,” she yawns.

 

She sits up and leans her head on his shoulder, “You hate emotions, babe, it’s just kind of a fact of you that I’ve learned to accept,” she says, as if she is reciting the laws of motion, _wait she called him babe again_ , “Goku not knowing that might make it harder for him to recognize what actually made you mad.”

“Are you sure?”

“Not really, maybe he’s upset because you won’t let him see you when you’re vulnerable.”

 

“He’s seen me when I’m vulnerable, Bulma,” and now she’s squished his cheeks between her hands, looking at him in the eye.

“Maybe, but has he… _really_ seen you when you’re vulnerable?” she leans in closer, making eye contact, “When have you willingly allowed yourself to show emotion to him?”

Vegeta thinks about it, and can only pinpoint two moments, both of them make him wince.

 

“When I had resigned myself to death,” he says through squished cheeks.

“Jesus,” Bulma lets up on the squishing but doesn’t let go of his face, but instead places her hands on the back of his neck, playing with the shorter hairs at the base, “Babe,” _three times!!_ “you’ve got a lot to unpack there, but until we book you for a therapist appointment, I’m all you’ve got. So…”

Bulma looks like she’s trying to put words together, which is why she’s smarter than him, she bothers to think before she talks.

“Every time you’ve allowed Goku to see you, the vulnerable you, has been when you’re about to die. Wouldn’t it be reasonable to conclude… that you’ve only ever allowed yourself to be fully emotionally honest with him, when you thought you wouldn’t have to deal with the consequences?”

 

“Wouldn’t another conclusion be that you’d rather die than let him know you while you’re alive? Or be close to you?”

_Oh._

Vegeta’s clarity must’ve shown on his face, because Bulma continued, “Now, while I leave you with that, you need to get ready to apologize to Goku! I let you procrastinate because he was sleeping but you better get to it!”

 

He hugged her close before she could move away, “I hate that you’re making me do this.”

Bulma flicked his ear, “The hurt puppy look doesn’t work on me, I’ve known Goku forever so I’ve built up an immunity.”

He tiredly glared at her.

“Fine.”

“That’s my Vegeta,” she ran a hand through his hair, “now get going, buster!”


	4. Vegeta speaks to Goku

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> they Speak

Goku was working on the fields when Vegeta touched down about 30 feet away.

Goku wiped the sweat off his forehead, and leaned on his rake.

Vegeta walked forward until they were only a few feet apart.

“Hey, ‘Geta,” Goku said neutrally.

Vegeta’s stomach hurt, he hoped he hadn’t fucked this up.

“About yesterday,” Vegeta started, and noticed that Kakarot tensed a bit, and opened his mouth.

“Yeah… sorry about… touchin’ you without permission.” Kakarot’s face took a bit of that crushed expression he had seen earlier.

Vegeta’s chest hurt, “I accept your apology, but I-” he paused, struggling to put together words, “I shouldn’t have yelled at you.”

“It’s fine. I shouldn’t have run away.” Goku mumbled.

“No.” Vegeta said, “It’s not fine I shouldn’t have. I shouldn’t have rejected you like that.”

Goku laughs sadly, “It’s okay if ya don’t feel the same. I wish ya did though.”

 _Fuck._ Vegeta’s chest felt tighter.

“Kakarot.”

“It’s okay if you don’t wanna see me again,” his voice cracked a bit, his smile struggling to stay a smile.

_No. no. no. This isn’t how it’s supposed to go._

Words weren’t working, Vegeta decided.

Vegeta crowded in closer, and raised his hand, but before his ungloved hand made contact with Kakarot’s face, he noticed the terrified look in his eyes, which made him pause.

“Kakarot, can I touch you?”

Kakarot nodded, still looking slightly scared.

“Kakarot,” Vegeta’s whispered voice cracked slightly, “can I kiss you?”

Kakarot’s lips met his in answer.

* * *

“Shit, wait, fuck, does your wife know?” Vegeta said, suddenly realizing he hadn’t checked.

“Don’t worry, she’s fine with it!”

“Did… you tell her?”

* * *

Goku rolled out of bed, slowly making his way down the stairs.

He saw his wife making food and smiled, and guiltily remembered yesterday.

“Goku,” Chichi began, “Can we talk?”

_Oh no what did I do._

“I heard what happened, with you and Vegeta,” Chichi said.

Goku’s tummy felt like he just swallowed 100 rocks and they were overflowing into his throat.

Goku was gonna try and laugh it off but… this wasn’t like lying about working the fields, so he gulped and spoke.

“I’m… sorry.”

“I forgive you, but next time you wanna kiss Vegeta, you should tell me first.”

Goku. Didn’t quite know how to respond to that, “Wait, you’re not mad?”

“I’m… I’m not mad but it took some thinking, me and Bulma talked about this a few months ago.”

_But he only tried to kiss Vegeta yesterday???? How did they know his feelings before he did?_

“And. I’m fine with it. So is she. Just promise me something.”

“Like what?”

“Promise… can you promise you won’t stop lovin’ me?”

“Of course not! I married you, didn’t I?

Some of the tension left her shoulders, and she smiled, “That’s right, you did.”

“But I don’t... I don’t think Vegeta feels the same way,” Goku said, sadly.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” she smirked.

Goku was confused, “What do you mean?”

“Just give him some time, you might be surprised.”

 

* * *

 

“Nah, she already knew.”

“How-” Vegeta suddenly realizes… Bulma and Chichi are pretty much best friends… and Bulma hadn’t asked Vegeta to not hurt her…

Oh no fucking way.

“We were duped. They both fucking knew.”

 

“Is that a bad thing?” Kakarot asked.

“No, I’m just. They fucking- They put me through this. I’m divorcing my wife immediately I never wanna see her again.”

“Liar.”

“I’m never speaking to you again.” he said, despite the fact that Kakarot was comfortably laying on him.

“That’s gonna be difficult because I’m not sure if I wanna move.” Goku teased.

 

“I hate you.”

“I love you, too.”

“... The feeling’s mutual.”

Goku squeezed tighter.

* * *

 

Bonus:


End file.
